Are any forward minded Christians trying to prove that scripture backs a 4.6 billion year old Earth?

Yes, there are Christians who believe the earth is billions of years old, and that it doesn't contradict scripture. Although, most Christians are stuck in centuries old traditions and are unaware of more modern theories of creation that have developed since man gained a greater knowledge of his surroundings.

I answered a somewhat similar question of yours and explained an alternate viewpoint.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ak_p4...

The order listed in Genesis is basically the same order science gives for the formation of the planet and the order life evolved.

Many Christians, however, will not let loose of what they want to believe no matter what evidence comes their way. It's creating facts to support a conclusion they've already drawn. The same is true for atheists who approach religion with the same stuborness. It takes people willing to step outside of the box to truely approach things openly to weight the facts before drawing conclusions.

EDIT

Somebody,

I've read creation science books by Henry Morrison, Keneth Ham, etc., and their young earth views. You need to read Dr. Arthur Strahler's book where he looks at the absurdities of the psuedo creation scientists. Don't just study those who support what you want to believe without looking at how scientists address creation scientists.

http://www.amazon.com/Science-Earth-History-Evolut...

The Bible states this earth is eons and eons in age; in fact,

2 peter Chapter 3 in the manuscripts (and backed up by the Massorah) states that not only is the Earth billiions of years old, but that there was an entire earth age before this one that we live in now.

I don't know about "forward minded", but I do know that this is the same Holy Scriptures that have been around forever -

its just that people do not care enough to check out what they actually say, or too lazy to take it back to the original language, or else they are content to just believe whatever

tripe some priest or pastor lays on them.

There is no controversy between true Science and the Word of God, and no reason to feel that you need to jump onto one bandwagon or the other. I am a Christian devoted to Christ and I celebrate any time one of our Worlds dedicated Scientists realize a find; anything short would be immature

and unnecessary.

even as old as i am, and i am older than dirt, i'm not that old so proving it would be difficult.

i had a discussion with someone some time back on the age of the earth dealing with sun shrink/expansion and ran across some very interesting data

a lot of people think that there is a magic bullet or something that proves once and for all that something is not to be disputed. that is not the case. people look at the same datum and come up with different ideas.

the shrinking sun was one of the most interesting ones, and while the sun is losing mass, it should be expanding, and it is, until is starts to shrink again on a 288 year cycle i think the article states. what does that mean? it means there is more to learn about stellar life and the workings of the fussion furnace inside.

and evolution? and every other aspect to include geology where we are getting fossils and other important clues, there is more to be learned. we just don't know it all yet.

here are some links on some things worth reading. and again, if there was one clear answer, then we would have ended this debate once and for all and only the foolish would cling to the flat earth belief.

http://www.orionfdn.org/papers/perspectives-2004-c...

here is a list of interesting readings that i have yet to complete, many websites are listed

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cornell+unive...

i was reading about a jelly type fish being the first life form this morning and the scientists were scratching their head at the jelly fish being the first since it was thought sponges were the first life forms (colonial for those who are thinking single cells were first; think evolution when you are reading, you must be dual perceptive of mind)

There are different lines of thought as to scripture interpretation concerning Biblical Creation. The two main ideas are Young Earth Creationism (YEC) and Old Earth Creationism (OEC). Some YEC's loosely interpret Day 4 to mean the stars "appeared", meaning their light was seen, rather than that God actually created the stars on that day and allow for poetic license given the metaphoric nature of the Hebrew language and they are inclined to believe the Universe is old but the Earth is still young. I believe both the Earth and Universe to be young and star light question answered by Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

I personally have looked at a great deal of the arguments on all sides spending no less than 5 hours a week of study for the last two years on both technical scientific papers for all phases of evolutionary processes including biological evolution and creationist theories. I have rather well settled on a literal interpretation of Genesis, aka YEC with young Universe. As per the scientific evidence which has been published for some time but is ignored because it discredits ToE, the Earth can not be more than 10 thousand years old. According to the Biblical geneologies, it is just over 6,000 years old to which there is considerable physical evidence which has also been ignored.

4.6 billion years is not forward looking. It is in my opinion totally wrong. Here a few reasons why:

Both Creationists and Evolutionists agree that if evolution is at all possible, there needs to be an excessive (if not infinite) amount of time. For much of the 20th century, it was thought evolutionists had all the time they needed. If the earth ever looked too young for certain evolutionary developments to have occurred, the age was pushed back in the textbooks. In 1905, the earth was declared to be two billion years old. By 1970, the earth was determined to be 3.5 billion years old, and by the 1990's, the earth had become 4.6 billion years old. However, Young Earth advocates have identified quite a few Young Earth chronometers in recent years. Currently, there are approximately five times more natural chronometers indicating a "Young Earth" than an "Old Earth." Each discovery is a separate "Limiting Factor" that places a constraint on the possible age of the earth. For example, moon drift, earth rotation speed, magnetic field decay, erosion rates, chemical influx into the oceans, ocean salinity, etc, all constrain the possible age of the earth. Each Limiting Factor is distinct. If one were successfully challenged, there is still the problem of all the rest. Furthermore, there are Limiting Factors constraining the possible age of the universe, such as spiral galaxies where they're maintaining their spiral shapes despite their centers spinning faster than their extremities.

That would be futile since the Bible doesn't say how old the earth is (see KL's answer for elaboration).

The word "yom" CAN mean a 24-hour period; it can also mean "a period of time marked by a definite beginning and a definite end." It is frequently used that way in Genesis. To use the word yom to mean it meant 6 literal days is inaccurate and misleading.

If we look at the Jewish schools of interpretation of Genesis, we would see that, if anything, they indicate the earth is ancient, not young. Rather than trying to regurgitate what the Torah scholars say about it, let's just say we should ask them, since the story and scripture came from them.

I have no problem with the earth being any age. I honestly have heard many arguments and disagreements among church people. As well I have heard strong disagreement and date revisions among non-believing scientists. Many Christians get hung up on God creating the earth in six days. Yet scripture doesn't tellu s how long one of God's days are. We are told in scripture that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years. Not is literally a thousand years but as a thousand years inferring a long time. 2 Peter 3:8

Scientists used to believe that the universe was 13-20 billion years old. Then when we got the COBE (COsmic Background Explorer) data back it was pretty conclusive, 13.6 Billion years old. The earth has to be less old than the universe, and that's pretty close to 4.5 billion years old.

Well, there's always the scripture that says that for God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years a day. Some are able to apply this to the first chapter of Genesis and understand that it was an allegory.

No.

The Bible does not mention the age of the earth.

All it says is that the earth was there before Creative "Day" One.

It could be 4.6 billion. Or 4.6 trillion. Or 4.6 zillion.

The Bible does not say.

I really have no opinion on how old the earth is, so I'm not trying to prove anything about the earth's age with the Bible.

I do believe that God made it just like He said He did in Genesis. When He did that, I do not know.

Hopefully, I don't have any agenda with trying to prove anything I already believe from the Bible, but rather glean my beliefs *from* the Bible.

One thing I know for sure: The Bible doesn't give the earth's age.